Personal Strengths In East Lothian Education Management January 30, 2007
Posted by Bill in : Adult Education, Management Training, SDI , 3comments
I have been attending a management course as part of CPD. It has been extremley useful. We are half way through and I am learning a tremendous amount. Much of the learning originates from the trainer and also the useful group discussions with the rest of the delegates from Education in East Lothian. We have been using the SDI questionaire;
http://www.personalstrengths.co.uk/newbroc1.htm
It is an excellent training tool and is basically a type of physcometric testing which focuses on “relationship awareness theory”. By raising awareness difficult or conflicting work relationships can be tackled with added knowledge. It certainly creates a lot of discussion and debate. I had seen this questionaire in action several years ago working in a previous authority but had forgotten how effective it was not just for conflict situations but for getting the most out of day to day issues/interaction (Useful on its own or as an add on to Transactional Analysis tools developed by Eric Berne) to help improve personal performance through focused meaningful dialogue.
Also great coaching and mentoring techniques - more on that later…
Nice also to use John Muir House conference rooms. I feel we need to offer more courses from the Outdoor Education service which use techniques such as this, i.e. in team building activities for staff . Combined use of these techniques with outdoor activity can produce powerful and enjoyable learning experiences. With good facilitation these learning experiences can have very succesful transfer of learning to the workplace, often by use of metaphors etc (see Preston Lodge High Vs Alexander The Great, see;
http://edubuzz.org/blogs/billstephen/category/alexander-the-great/
i.e. use of metaphor and historical leadership figures to frame styles/type of leadership).
I intend to write more on this in the coming days, particularly after reading John Connell’s blog and Dons Blog on leadership models. It would be interesting to get some data from East Lothian Education managers i.e. Heads, Deputes, PT’s etc on leadership qualities (or pehaps management of the region as a whole). I had been going down the “learning organisation” line for a dissertation that I hope to start next year as part of my Outdoor Management Development MSc. But questions and discussions during this course and through blogging are starting to make me sway towards research on leadership - A discussion with my course mentor is in order I think!
Smart Citzenship Group Market Day - Knox Academy January 24, 2007
Posted by Bill in : Knox Academy, Smart Citzenship , add a comment
A great experience today setting up a stand at Knox Academy. It was devised and organised by the S3 pupils at Knox Academy. http://www.ka-net.org.uk/ )The project was to help young people to get information and get incolved in local community. Great to see so many stands. The photos are of setting up the stand and when everyone arrived.
Great to see so much interest in the Outdoors from the S3 pupils. They had quite a few questions to ask from their questionaire so it kept the stand nice and busy as you can see. It’s allways nice to see some of the pupils we had worked with in S2 last year. I look forward to bulding a bigger and better stand in the future, perhaps with some activity for the pupils too! Hopefuly it will run again. Good also to meet contacts from the region. A chance to network is always welcome. Fantastic too that the blokart sail which doubled as a projector screen (Great idea Alastair!) fitted in the main hall - only a couple of feet to spare!
100% Pass First Aid At Work. January 24, 2007
Posted by Bill in : Adult Education, First Aid, Outdoor Education , 2comments
Well done to all the employees in East Lothian who completed their First Aid at work qualification at the weekend. Thanks to staff for all their input throughout the course and for bringing in Choking Charlie - a great teaching aid. The real life experience that attendees bring to the course is what makes the course interesting. Staff also asked me if anyone had failed my first aid courses ? As I said no-one had ever failed my course - I did forget to mention that this was the first full First Aid at Work course I had taught. Everyone passed! so a 100% pass rate so far. If you visit the blog please leave a comment on how you thought the course was, and ways to improve it. This will help my teaching a great deal.
There are lots of first aid sites on th web full of resources and there are a few listed below.
http://www.firstaidcafe.co.uk/ - a useful forum and links to up to date stuff.
http://www.resus.org.uk/ - Up to date info for resus.
Also ELOE website. www.eloe.ik.org
